They were here first, they did it first. 

Foraging expert Sam Thayer believes hickory oil was some native Americans' most calorically important food plant for thousands of years. 

European settlers arrogantly often tried to force native people to adopt their more "civilized" till agriculture. Now that we've washed a third of my state's topsoil down the Mississippi, can we really still say we're more civilized?

I harvest nuts from trees growing naturally in the woods. I dig out invasive species like honeysuckle and multiflora rose to facilitate harvest, leaving the forest looking better than when I found it.

I've also started to thin some forests, turning the trees I cut down into biochar to help build the soil and sequester carbon. Thoughtful thinning is very helpful for forests that have been unmanaged for a long time. Did you know that Iowa's forests today are far more crowded than they were 200 years ago? 

I plant free trees each spring in my SE Iowa community. This ensures that a lot of people will have access to nuts. As long as there's someone around who knows how to press oil, we'll have food.